Rest In Play - 2020 - 2029

Marilyn Feoranzo - With great sadness, we at Beacon Media Group share news of the passing of our friend and colleague, media specialist Marilyn Feoranzo. Marilyn brought passion, skill, and wit to her... tremendous work with clients every day — skillful and astute in her mastery of media planning, and tough in her negotiation and execution of top-performing media buys across the industry. She worked tirelessly to ensure clients got nothing less than the best in media delivery. And she made us laugh every day. Across a career spanning four decades, Marilyn managed hundreds of millions of dollars in media spending with a specialty in network, cable syndication, and radio markets at Bozell Ad Agency, eventually acquired by True North, where she worked on the JCPenney and Bausch & Lomb accounts before moving on to Unilever working on brands including Dove and Lipton Tea. She then moved to the Wyeth Ad Agency, where she worked on over-the-counter and direct-to-consumer brands such as Advil, Centrum, and ChapStick before moving to Beacon Media in New Jersey to focus her specialty on the kids and family market. With Beacon Media, for more than 10 years, she developed and executed TV buying strategies for many of the largest brands in the toy industry, including MGA Entertainment’s L.O.L. Surprise! and many more. Marilyn retired from her duties to focus on health and family in her final year, and while we are tremendously sad that she is gone, her fire, commitment, and example will long be part of our legacy and an approach that helps drive our team to success in the future. Marilyn leaves behind a husband, Bill, and daughters Nicole and Danielle. Rest In Peace, dearest Marilyn. We are eternally grateful to have known you. — The Beacon Media Group TeamShow more

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John Hall began his career in toys with Child Guidance, which was eventually bought by Gabriel and then by CBS Toys. Ultimately, Hasbro purchased this group and John and his wife, Nancy, moved to Rhod...e Island with their two children, Jonathan and Kirsten, where he had a long career working at Hasbro as Sr VP, Director of Product Development for Playskool. He was affectionately known and embraced the moniker “Dr. No” by toy inventors for his discerning taste. John, with his characteristic dry humor also didn’t mind being referred to as “Dr. Know”. (information from Bob Fuhrer) Show more

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GEORGE PEREZ  (1954 - 2022) - Writer, artist, and humanitarian George Perez died of pancreatic cancer on May 6, at the age of 67. Born in the Bronx in 1954, Perez worked on numerous series for both ...DC and Marvel over the years, as well as for other publishers such as Malibu, CrossGen, and BOOM! Studios. Perez was known for his skill with complicated scenes, and he contributed to such groundbreaking projects as DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths and the Marvel-DC crossover JLA/Avengers. Perez was also one of the founding members of The Hero Initiative, a nonprofit that assists comics creators in need. He received the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award in 2005, and in 2017 he was inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame. READ MORE...Show more

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Robert Krakoff  (October 4, 1940 - April 26, 2022) - Razer co-founder and gaming mouse pioneer. Before Razer the company, there was Razerguy. In 1999, Krakoff was behind the first-ever gaming mou...se: the Razer Boomslang. Not only was it the foundation of Razer’s now-massive lineup of gaming mice, it arguably jumpstarted the entire gaming peripheral industry. Show more

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Wieland Herold (1950-2022) - (from his son Florian Herold) - Wieland Herold has passed away. Wieland was a lot of things. He was a husband, father of four children, school leader. But he also had a... significant role in the press world of board games. For many years he acted as part of the jury "Game of the Year", as part of the "Göttinger Author Meeting" and as the editor of the magazine "Game and Author". In recent years, he had put his focus on family, but still wrote about games and book reviews for his blog almost daily. At the end of his life, he was still a premier lecturer and photographer. He was a great supporter of the development and the rights of German playwright. What is important, he was also a beloved friend, a four-time grandfather and was always there for the family. In my brother's h2o publication, there will be a game that he has contributed a lot to soon. This was the first time he worked hard on a game himself. It comforts me because after his death there will be something of him that will always remind me of him. At the end of his life, he was not alone. I asked him if anything is still open? He said “No, that’s all said.” His words remain. He was a master of words. If you want to know more about him, you can read it at: http://www.mit80.de/ His last post is from mid-December. As long as he could, he always wrote texts. I miss him every second. He was my father. Florian HeroldShow more

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Streamer, voice actor and consultant Undrea Leach passed away in February. As reported by Game Developer, Leach entered the games industry via her work as a Twitch streamer, and later expanded into vo...ice acting, appearing in indie titles such as Last Line of Retreat and Starcrossed. Leech also worked as a diversity consultant, and co-ran an initiative that helped industry professionals look for new jobs in games alongside writer Mitch Dyer. Peers and friends shared tributes to Leach via Twitter. Fellow streamer Brooklyn (bklynbridge) said "she was a light in countless lives and she is missed terribly," while Dyer commented: "This is devastating. Nothing but love to her friends and family." Leach's family is raising funds via GoFundMe to cover burial costs.Show more

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Gilbert Gottfried, Aladdin Voice Actor and Comedian, Dead at 67 After a Long Illness - People. Known for his work in comedy films and as Iago in Disney's 1992 classic Aladdin, Gottfried was instantly ...recognizable for his over-the-top, exaggerated voice. A standup comic with a podcast called Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast! — the last new episode of which aired on April 4 — Gottfried was also known for his work on the popular PBS Kids show Cyberchase. READ MORE . .Show more

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Toy World is sad to report the passing of popular independent retailer Margaret Goldie. When she retired back in 2007, Margaret summed up her career by saying: “You can’t wish to be in a better tr...ade than the toy trade.” Margaret opened her first shop in Holbrooks, Coventry in 1972 and opened further shops in the Westmead Centre, Allesley Park, and the first floor of Intershop, in Bull Yard. Margaret subsequently opened a shop in the Lower Precinct in 1982, closing her first two shops at the same time. The Lower Precinct and Intershop branches closed in 1989 and 2000, respectively, and she moved to City Arcade. On her retirement, Margaret told the Coventry Telegraph: “My most treasured toy is a six-foot Rupert Bear given to me to celebrate 25 years in the toy trade.” She also said that said her job was very rewarding for the happiness it has brought Coventry children over the years: “It’s lovely, you just imagine Christmas Day when they’re opening their toys.” Well-known Midlands agent John Nicholas told Toy World: “Margaret was an excellent buyer of toys, backing her judgement with some large orders. Her window displays won her many prizes, including an Austin Mini for her Care Bears window. In 2002, she was sponsored by John Hales of Golden Bear to be awarded a Golden Teddy for her contribution to the toy industry, which she was thrilled to bits with.” John added: “During the 1990s, she used to invite reps and agents along with a few retailer friends to her flat near Earls Court during the Toy Fair. You were always proud to be asked. A super lady who loved life, may she rest in peace.”Show more

Richard Robinson (1937-2021) was named President of Scholastic Inc. in 1974 and Chief Executive Officer in 1975. He was elected to the position of Chairman of the Board in 1982. Under Mr. Robinson’s... leadership, Scholastic has become the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books, a leading provider of print and digital instructional materials for pre-K to grade 12, and a producer of educational and entertaining children’s media. With annual revenue of $1.6 billion and more than 8,000 employees worldwide, the Company distributes one out of every three children’s books purchased in the United States through school-based Scholastic Book Clubs and Book Fairs, instructional programs, non-profit partners, retail outlets, and online.Show more

John McMeel, a founder of what began as a basement operation in a rented ranch house in Kansas — with a mail drop on Fifth Avenue — and grew into the largest newspaper syndication company in the w...orld, died on July 7, 2021 at his home in Kansas City, Mo. Mr. McMeel and Jim Andrews were holding day jobs in the late 1960s — Mr. McMeel as a salesman for Hall, a newspaper syndication company in New York City; Mr. Andrews as managing editor of The National Catholic Reporter in Kansas City — but they were already moonlighting as the syndication moguls they would one day become. Before their company had any clients, it had a name, Universal Press Syndicate, which they chose because it sounded grown-up and corporate and as if it had been around forever. Mr. Andrews gave himself a pseudonym, John Kennedy, for the president he had idolized. Mr. Andrews, a cerebral former Roman Catholic seminarian living in Leawood, Kan., trawled for content creators like Garry Trudeau, whom he found in the pages of The Yale Daily News. (Mr. Trudeau was a Yale junior writing a strip called “Bull Tales” about a college quarterback named B.D. — the character who became the world-weary warrior in Mr. Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” — and the partners had to wait for him to graduate, and for the threat of the military draft to pass, before signing him up.) Mr. McMeel, a waggish and charming law school dropout, was the salesman.Show more